Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe

George Friedman has forecasted the coming trends (politics, technology, population, and culture) of the next century in
The Next 100 Years, and focused his predictions on the coming ten years in
The Next Decade. Now, in
Flashpoints, Friedman zooms in on the region that has, for 500 years, been the cultural hotbed of the world - Europe - and examines the most basic and fascinating building block of the region: culture.

America's Secret War: Inside the Struggle Between the United States and Its Enemies

Dubbed by Barron's as "The Shadow CIA", Stratfor, George Friedman's global intelligence company, has provided analysis to Fortune 500 companies, news outlets, and even the U.S. government. Now Friedman delivers the geopolitical story that the mainstream media has been unable to uncover, the startling truth behind America's foreign policy and war effort in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.

WTF: What have we done? Why did it happen? How do we take back control?

There has been a people's revolt against the way the West has been run. Brexit, Trump, the recent British and French elections saw millions of people shouting that they were sick to death of things never getting better. In WTF Robert Peston gives us his highly personal account of what those who have ruled us for years got so badly wrong and what we need to do to mend the terrible fractures in our society.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

In
The Next 100 Years, Friedman turns his eye on the future. Drawing on a profound understanding of history and geopolitical patterns dating back to the Roman Empire, he shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, experiencing the dawn of a new historical cycle.

World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of World Order by Henry Kissinger, read by Nicholas Hormann. World Order is the summation of Henry Kissinger's thinking about history, strategy and statecraft. As if taking a perspective from far above the globe, it examines the great tectonic plates of history and the motivations of nations, explaining the attitudes that states and empires have taken to the rest of the world from the formation of Europe to our own times.

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives - from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture - can be understood as the result of a few long-term accelerating forces.

Dark Money: How a secretive group of billionaires is trying to buy political control in the US

Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against "big government" led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement.

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Brilliant and engagingly written,
Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life. The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control.

The Euro: And Its Threat to the Future of Europe

From Nobel Prize-winning economist and best-selling author Joseph Stiglitz, author of Globalization and Its Discontents, this is the essential audio guide to the future of Europe. Solidarity and prosperity fostered by economic integration: this principle has underpinned the European project from the start, and the establishment of a common currency was supposed to be its most audacious and tangible achievement. Since 2008, however, the European Union has ricocheted between stagnation and crisis.

Selim A. Goksel says:"The EC and ECB has a lot to learn from Stiglitz"

Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First

What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present.

Publisher's Summary

The author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Next 100 Years now focuses his geopolitical forecasting acumen on the next decade and the imminent events and challenges that will test America and the world, specifically addressing the skills that will be required by the decade’s leaders.

The next ten years will be a time of massive transition. The wars in the Islamic world will be subsiding, and terrorism will become something we learn to live with. China will be encountering its crisis. We will be moving from a time when financial crises dominate the world to a time when labor shortages will begin to dominate. The new century will be taking shape in the next decade.

In The Next Decade, George Friedman offers readers a pro­vocative and endlessly fascinating prognosis for the immedi­ate future. Using Machiavelli’s The Prince as a model, Friedman focuses on the world’s leaders - particularly the American president - and with his trusted geopolitical insight analyzes the complex chess game they will all have to play. The book also asks how to be a good president in a decade of extraordinary challenge, and puts the world’s leaders under a microscope to explain how they will arrive at the decisions they will make - and the consequences these actions will have for us all.

Friedman's analysis in this book is neither left nor right, neither liberal nor conservative. As a conservative myself, his cynical view of the American "empire" and practical Machiavellian insights into sound foreign policy contradict my idealistic higher moral calling toward "liberty and justice for all mankind". In fact, now that I think of it, it could be argued that Obama's soft call towards the Middle East may be just what we need to restore stalemate-stability in a region that would be devastating to US prosperity and security were it to unite under a common banner. This and other cold, hard insights on the unintended American hegemony make this the must-read book of the year, if not the decade. I have not read his previous books, so those of who know Friedman may be like, "yeah, we know he's good", but this is my first (and definitely not last) read from this author. You high-minded Tea-Party moralists and Left-wing ivy league idealogues would be foolish not to get a second opinion on how the world really operates from an internationally recognized expert on geopolitical analysis. Get it, read it, let your jaws hit the floor. Mine did.

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

Roy

Beaumont, TX, United States

26/01/11

Overall

"Very Practical Geo-Political Orientation"

I am a fan of George Friedman and he has provided a great service to readers who are interested in the geo-political furture faced by the US over the next decade. This is a terribly informative and stimulating analysis and outline of the broad issues that will confront the country. While his previous book, "The Next 100 Years" is interesting, this volume is of a shorter time horizon and, therefore, less conjecture is involved. For that reason, I enjoyed this one a great deal more than the prior. He opens the book with a discussion of the role that the POSTUS will need to play internationally. This discussion was at once disturbing to me and really enlightening about the nature of powerful leaders and leadership. He follows by discussing blancing various actors on the world stage (India/Paskistan; Russia/German and so on). He also has some thought provoking insights into the future of Asia in general and China in particular. In a particularly forceful portion of the book, Friedman defines "deep power" and explains why the US is the only super power and will probably remain so - assuming that the POTUS assumes the appropriate leadership stance that Friedman presents. The writing is very good and the reading of Bruce Turk is excellent. This is a book that everyone interested in the future of the country and votes should read.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

Nikolay Sitkarev

Limassol, Cyprus

03/02/11

Overall

"Second thought pleasure"

This is my second book by George Friedman and I'm a strong advocate for his books. I encourage my friends to read this book, though make their opinion on Mr.s Friedman's logic.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

CHET YARBROUGH

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, United States

18/06/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"AMERICAN EMPIRE"

“The Next Decade” is a provocative book. Political Science is an oxymoron but George Friedman, a Political Science Ph.D., rivals Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) in his cynical assessment of world politics in the 21stcentury. Friedman suggests that this is the age of American empire. He believes America is on the precipice of decline without a re-evaluation of its role in the world.

America is an aircraft carrier in a sea of agile boats. The boats are less substantial vessels (smaller political factions) but they can maneuver faster and have equal or greater effect on public opinion. The obvious example is al-Qaida’s New York terrorist attack that killed 3,000 innocents. That single act changed worldwide transportation security, instigated America’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and opened the door to a new balance of power in the Middle East.

America may be a third Empire in history but one may doubt its ability to rule in “The Next Decade” based on 21st century’ events and actions.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mario

Celaya, Mexico

29/05/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"You'll end up smarter just by reading it."

Any additional comments?

I first read The Next One Hundred Years; I thought that the exercise of trying to look so much into the future was too speculative. The Next Decade is, in my opinion, a much better book and given that some of the predictions of the author are already happening, the Russian annexation of Crimea as an example, this book is becoming scarily accurate. More than a futurist book, the author really understands geopolitics and his premise of recognizing that the US is, for all intended purposes, an empire is dead on. He explains the appropriate strategies the US would be wise to follow and gives us a glimpse of what past administrations have done to manipulate other countries into rivalries and alliances with the objective of maintaining balance, the book is not about right and wrong but about what works for maintaining a strong position in the world.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Jason J. Sharon

Charleston, SC

30/10/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"This should be required reading for all Americans."

I originally rented this from Cracker Barrel. I liked it so much I bought it here and listened to it 2 more times. There is a slight liberal lean to it, but that is palatable. I learned so much, I can not even describe. The mistake of Iraq is so painfully obvious when you listen to this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Daniel

WI, WI, United States

03/01/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very thorough yet understandable"

Much like "America's Secret War", the title does no justice to the content. This book is captivating in the author's strongly founded opinions on the direction of global affairs and how in fact the presidency matters only in so much in how the president responds to current issues (and the impact they will have on the next decade.) Very good read.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

victoria

Hangzhou, China

12/02/11

Overall

"insightful information"

I had finished half of the book ,so far I liked it pretty much.

Lots of interesting information about geopolitics. The author spends more pages writting about what had happened in the last fifty years than predicting what would happen in the next decade.That's not what I had expected,but still ok, interesting content.

If you are someone who aleady knew a lot on geopolitics, you won't find too much news in this book.But if you are not, I highly recommend this book, after 9 hours listening, you will have a more clear,deeper view on geopolitics.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Daniel

Cleveland Heights, OH, United States

08/02/11

Overall

"Challenges Ahead for America's Leadership"

The book's main premise and Friedman's concern, at least how he states it in the introduction is that America has become an empire because it is now the sole major power in the world. Friedman builds a solid argument here and then moves on to describe his concern that the US is immature and our republic may not survive managing the empire. In his view, the Presidency is the major institution of government that can manage the empire and the republic. He makes a good case for how President Bush lost his balance in responding so strongly to the attacks of 09/11 and initiating a war on terror that can not be won, and has shifted America's focus from other major threats such as a resurgent Russia.

Friedman does a good job of laying out the foreign policy challenges the US faces in the next decade and offers prescriptions of what should be done to manage our long-term interests. Some of these are very counter intuitive to general thinking, but they make sense within the general framework he advocates to maintain America's interests. The chapters on what policy actions to take are the books strength.

The book's weakness, however, is the limited prescriptions as to what the President must do to manage the Republic while responding to these challenges. He cites Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan as three astute role models, while acknowledging they each pursued duplicitous strategies in some cases to achieve a moral objective. He notes the flaws in an idealistic or realistic approach to foreign policy and how a more nuanced view is needed. And while he describes how the President must communicate to citizens, he does not offer any solid definition of how the President must interact with Congress or the Judiciary. He does suggest that we need a more rationalized administration developing foreign policy. I think this book could have been much better if it was co-written with a political governance expert.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

C. Aljilani

San Diego, CA

06/11/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Friedman provides a great basis for thinking"

Agree with it or not, America is an empire. We must know our role and how to establish the right balance of power. Steeped with Machiavellian references, this book shows trends that are actually playing out (since we're 6 years into The Next Decade ). This is a good place to start your thinking of geopolitics.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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